President Obama will spend Monday afternoon meeting with civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss ways to build trust between local police and communities in the wake of mass looting and rioting in Ferguson, Mo.
Many business owners in Ferguson spent the weekend after Thanksgiving rebuilding their damaged stores and facilities. Unrest exploded in the wake of a grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown.
Obama called for calm shortly after the grand jury announced its decision early last week. Violence and looting erupted in the town where the officer killed Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old man, after an altercation at Wilson’s patrol SUV.
“As the country has witnessed, disintegration of trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve can destabilize communities, undermine the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, undermine public safety, create resentment in local communities, and make the job of delivering police services less safe and more difficult,” a White House official said in a statement issued Sunday evening.
Obama plans to spend part of Monday afternoon meeting with Cabinet members to discuss an earlier administration review he ordered of a Defense Department program that transfers military equipment to state and local police.
After meeting with his Cabinet, Obama plans to sit down with young civil rights leaders. That Oval Office meeting with focus on the leaders’ efforts and “broader challenges we still face as a nation, including the mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color,” according to the official.
The president then plans to hold a separate meeting with elected officials, community, civil rights, faith leaders and law enforcement officials from around the country. He plans to discuss “how communities and law enforcement can work together to build trust to strengthen neighborhoods across the country,” the official said.
After Brown’s death in mid-to-late August, nightly images of police using military-style tactics in efforts to control protests and looting alarmed advocates for greater civil liberties on the Right and the Left.
Obama directed an internal administration review of the DOD’s so-called 1033 program, which has transferred billions of dollars worth of military equipment to state and local law enforcement since 1990. It’s unclear when the administration’s review will be completed or whether the president will take any action to curtail the program.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., chairwoman of a Senate subcommittee on federal financial and contracting oversight, held a September hearing about the militarization of local police after the August clashes in Ferguson.
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., also teamed up with Tea Party darling Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, to write a bill that would place new limits on the 1033 program.
